Thrissur: The project to upgrade the rice park at Chelakkara at a cost of Rs 20 crore and the Rs 269 crore allocated from KIIFB for the ongoing Phase I work for the International Zoological park at Puthur here are the major attraction in the state budget for the district. Apart from that there were no district specific projects in the state budget.
At present the rice park at Parakkad in Chelakkara is non-operational and the park which was set up 15 years ago is now in a dilapidated condition and covered by shrubs.
Some of the rusting machinery in the park which worked only for a few years after it began its operations were allegedly stolen.
Chelakkara MLA U.R. Pradeep said that the old rice park which stopped functioning was under the District Panchayat (DP) set up using the SC/ST welfare funds.
“There were some technical issues in processing all varieties of rice and other issues as well that led to the closure of the park. The new proposal in the state budget is to process as many much 2,000 kg of paddy collected from the farmers in a day. At present, the processing of rice collected from farmers is done at private mills. The project will be with the DP as it was earlier with some changes,” the MLA said.
In case of the Zoological Park, which is designed by Jon Coe, a leading international zoo designer from Australia, the LDF government is planning to complete the first phase and shift the present zoo from Chembukkavu to Puthur before it completes its tenure in 2021.
Due to lack of proper allotment of funds the first phase works at the proposed site at Puthur is going on at a snail’s pace at present.
